What is tithing?

For The Glory… Money (pt.1)
The word tithe literally means “a tenth”. It is rooted in the OT idea of giving a tenth of what you own. A closer look into Scriptures and we discover the OT concept of the tithe is not as simple as giving 10%. There were actually 3 tithes recorded in the OT, each slightly different from the other. The total amount given came to 20% or possibly, at times, up to 30% each year. Below is the breakdown of each tithe:
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waiting…

“So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.”
1 Cor. 10.31

I often feel the need to do great things for God to be glorified in me. But the simple truth is that we can and do glorify God in the small stuff, the eating and drinking stuff, the 99% of our time stuff. Big things do come for some of us, but most of us will live normal-crazy lives with normal-crazy schedules in a normal-crazy family. So if we spend our lives waiting until something big comes for our lives to count for God’s glory, then we just may spend the rest of our lives waiting…

Everyday there are dishes, and laundry, and kids, and appointments, and 1st shifts, and 2nd shifts, and 3rd shifts, and brushing teeth, and going to the park, and eating dinner, and taking the kids, and cleaning the bathrooms, and painting the walls, and shopping, and paying bills, and talking to friends, and folding the towels, and making lists, and on and on and on. This is life, and this is where glory is won or lost. God is not waiting for us to get this stuff done so we can get on with glorifying Him. He is waiting for us to glorify Him in doing this stuff.

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Welcoming a New Reality

A changed world will only come about when we are changed humans. God is at work within His world when he is at work within us. He is a HUGE and amazing God - the creator of worlds, and the recreator of us. Wow.

Check out this great post by Mike Bishop at www.whatischurch.com. Best line… “We think it’s about changing the world – He knows it’s about changing us.”
Welcoming a New Reality

A Wake-Up Call

Check this out over at YouTube. Susan Boyle sings, “I Dreamed a Dream”
I love the judges remarks! Especially the comments from the girl judge. Isn’t it always better when it’s unexpected? Maybe that is part of why God chooses the foolish of this world to serve as his wake-up call. He chooses the beaten and the torn, the broken and the desperate to become his light that shines his glory and fame. He chooses us - the foolish - to confound and astound the wise and the powerful.

May we be the fools… 1 Corinthians 1.27

Angels with Chainsaws.

Today is a celebration of the beginnings of all restoration. This blog post from Curt Harding captures this beautifully in light of the recent tornado destruction in Tennessee. Angels with Chainsaws (via http://curtharding.wordpress.com)

Christ is Risen!

What joy, this promise of redemption; what love, this sacrifice given;
What hope, all things made new; what now, but new life for me and you.

Today is the day when all life is promised restoration. The day where all lost hope is given new life. The moment when the forces of evil were put on notice… Your time is running out. May we now be the people of resurrection, the people through whom this new life flows, the people who stare down the powers of evil, the people who live lives declaring that even though there is evil around us there is hope, there is love, there is faith, there is redemption.

Amen.

It’s Friday.

Tony Campolo is a man whose life has been about expanding and advancing the Kingdom of Heaven into this world. He has challenged Christians in America to live out a faith that explains the Good News. Years ago he preached a message called, “It’s Friday, But Sunday’s Coming”. The words and challenges in the message continue to resonate with all of us today. May they challenge you to live a life beyond the darkness threatening to oppresses us and those around us. And may your words and actions declare to a hurting world that God is on a mission to restore and redeem us all.

It’s Friday, But Sunday’s Coming (via tonycampolo.org)
Note: download by right clicking and choosing “save link (or target) as…”

Reverse.

Watch this video first (it’s quick). Then read below.

Shocking right? What a beautiful reminder of our brokenness and the need to reverse the direction of our self-destruction. The poem, in a simple way, reminds us that to change the way things are moving we must move in reverse. If we are tired of seeing marriages ending, poverty expanding, families losing, the environment disintegrating, and another generation failing then we need to stop and move the other way.

But how?
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